


Butterfly Closures

by BigBoyParty



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Everyone is a ghost besides Chan and Hyunjin, Ghosts, Haunting, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Purgatory, Sad, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, mansion, two sweet huge dogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:35:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27214294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigBoyParty/pseuds/BigBoyParty
Summary: Hyunjin let all the ghosts fuck him. Hyunjin had been stuck here for months.And for most of those months, nothing really changed. He fed the dogs and let them run out into the pasture behind the house. He slept too much or not enough and caught the ghosts peeking at him in the shower and that was his life.Until Chan went pool hopping.---After dropping out of college, Hyunjin has nowhere to go. He stays at his aunt's house, where he meets a horde of vengeful ghosts. When Chan stumbles into his life, Hyunjin hopes he can feel alive again, but the ghosts aren't so supportive.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Hwang Hyunjin, Hwang Hyunjin/Everyone
Comments: 10
Kudos: 129





	Butterfly Closures

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This fic is a gift for someone who requested it LITERAL MONTHS AGO. They wanted something dark and spooky with Hyunjin and Chan. If you're into gloomy vibes, read up, and mind the tags. I hope you enjoy!

Hyunjin wanted to believe they were all in his head.

“You look ugly today.”

“Shut up,” Hyunjin snapped.

He wanted to believe he was just crazy. Maybe they were lazy imaginings now that he had nothing to do after dropping out of college. Maybe they didn’t knock things off the shelves or rattle his doorknob at night. Maybe he was just crazy.

“Maybe you should cut your hair again.”

“Oh god, not again. He’d butcher it.”

There were two behind him now, Minho and Jisung, bickering around him in the mirror. Minho’s cold fingers threaded through his hair. They were always all over each other, laughing. 

If Hyunjin was the same boy he’d been about six months ago, when he first moved into his aunt’s enormous house, he would be throwing things at them. He upturned everything in the bathroom one time, slashing the shower curtains, but it never did him any good. He knew he couldn’t hurt them. They’d only laugh, and then his aunt would be angry when she came home.

He thought that Jisung might be the one who touched him sometimes at night. While Changbin and Felix snored beside him, Jisung would press cold, dirty fingertips to Hyunjin’s lips and massage the back of his tongue.

Hyunjin’s aunt was away right now. She would be at her beach house all summer, leaving Hyunjin to water her gardens and sweep her floors and look after her two ancient dogs. Hyunjin had been sleeping in her guest room for months now anyway, watching her dogs was the least he could do, and his first chance at independence since leaving school.

He yanked a few longer strands of his hair back into a tiny, pathetic ponytail and shaved quickly over the sink. He tried not to startle when Jeongin’s cold fingers wrapped around his wrist and slid the razor horizontal, scratching a little line in the side of his face. Hyunjin tried not to startle anymore.

He lumbered downstairs and dumped some food into the dog bowls. There were two of them: one designer dog, an arabian greyhound with soft cream-colored fur and dark coloration around the eyes, and a border collie mix who still jumped and barked at nothing even in her old age. They ate fast before venturing outside, leaving Hyunjin to a dozen eggs and the ghosts.

“Will you make some for us?” Felix asked, holding Hyunjin tight around the waist. Felix was sweet, even when his cold embraces were more disconcerting than comforting.

“You won’t eat them,” Hyunjin responded. He cracked two eggs into a bowl and beat them with a fork. It was hazy outside this morning. Hyunjin waddled around the kitchen, stirring and staring out the massive bay windows. 

“Make some for us anyway.” Felix plopped down on the bench under the windows, the cushion not compressing underneath him, no air moving against the curtains. Felix leaned across the table and put his chin in his hands, “Don't you want to stay on our good side?”

Hyunjin cracked a few more eggs in the bowl and cooked them all together, dividing the finished product onto two plates. He knew the boys wouldn’t eat them, but they gathered around him anyway.

Six ghosts were a lot to keep track of. Most of the time, he only had to handle a few of them at a time. Seungmin kept to himself, reading and rustling loose paperwork in the library, and Changbin was almost always out in the fields or by the pool. He was the oldest, and he was always telling Hyunjin how he tired of the dusty house. How beautiful he used to find it. Some days, Hyunjin found Changbin in the woods at the edges of the property, digging a deep hole to lay down in and pray for his release. But he hadn’t moved on just yet. It must have been something about the house.

This morning, they talked quietly. Jeongin smeared scrambled eggs on the table. Felix smiled at him. Hyunjin wondered how his aunt spent most of her life in this house.

After all, not all of the ghosts left him alone. Jeongin was notoriously cruel, giving him little nicks with the razor, breaking glasses and slamming doors at night when Hyunjin was trying to sleep. Hyunjin had tried crying. Hyunjin had tried pleading with him. Hyunjin had given up on all of that now.

Hyunjin slid his empty plate in the dishwasher and dumped the uneaten eggs in the dog bowls, Jisung and Jeongin pulling his ponytail the whole time.

Slowly, Hyunjin followed the dog’s path outside. The mist was heavy today, gathered in a little cloud over the surface of the pool. Hyunjin combed his fingers through his hair, always tangled, always too long, and pulled his shirt off over his head. His aunt’s property was massive, so he didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing him.

He dropped his old t-shirt on the pavement and dove headfirst into the water. It was still today. Cool. Hyunjin opened his mouth and gathered some of it up, letting it slip past his lips and drool down his chin. He ducked down under the water and sunk to the bottom, opening his eyes and watching the dark wavering shadows of Jisung’s legs paddling around the pool. Hyunjin pushed back up to the surface, gasping, and crawled to the edge of the pool where Changbin was lying flat on his back, one arm dangling so his fingertips grazed the surface of the water.

“How’s it going?” Hyunjin asked. He liked Changbin.

Changbin sighed, “Fine.”

Hyunjin took Changbin’s soft, cold hand and squeezed it. He liked Changbin’s crooked smile. “What’s on your mind?”

“The roof.”

Changbin had worked on the house’s roof. He didn’t live here, but a relative did, and he wanted to help them with the job. But it had rained earlier in the day, the old tiles were slick, and Changbin fell spectacularly. He’d tumbled over the edge of the roof, spiraled in the air, and landed neck-first on the gravel driveway below. Changbin had told the story before. He knew exactly how he’d misplaced his foot, just how his fingers clawed at the gutter but couldn’t gain purchase. Two weeks ago, Changbin had walked Hyunjin around the gravel driveway searching for rocks which still had a little brown splatter of his blood, even so many years after the fact. Changbin was always thinking about the roof.

“They fixed it up, you know.” Hyunjin ran his hands up Changbin’s arm, squeezing.

“I know.”

“Do you want me to fuck it up so you can fix it again?”

Changbin looked at Hyunjin with a sad smile, “I tried that years ago. No luck.” He pulled his hand from Hyunjin’s grip, crossed his arms over his chest, and barrel rolled into the pool.

Hyunjin laughed and dodged out of the way. He hoisted his butt up onto the edge of the pool and scratched the back of his neck. He picked a pimple and wiped the blood on his thigh. His aunt’s house was purgatory. A pile of cold bodies at the bottom of the pool.

Hyunjin slapped a mosquito on his arm. 

Jisung was grabbing at his ankles again, smiling with his nose just barely above the water. “What if I dragged you under?” Jisung threatened, giving a weak tug.

Hyunjin just shrugged and swished his other foot in lazy figure-8’s, “You wouldn’t dare... It would be so boring around here.”

“Maybe you’d be stuck with us.” Jisung squeezed Hyunjin’s toes.

“I think I already am.”

Hyunjin never got used to making out with a cold body. In the pool, he slipped partially under the water and let Jisung press chlorine-soaked lips to his. This was the good thing about ghosts. Jisung’s hands on his body were cold and dry but Hyunjin was lonely and he liked Jisung’s icy kisses on his neck. Jisung was cold and silent like a water snake. He pulled Hyunjin against himself, groaned and ground against him.

Hyunjin let all the ghosts fuck him. Hyunjin had been stuck here for months.

And for most of those months, nothing really changed. He fed the dogs and let them run out into the pasture behind the house. He slept too much or not enough and caught the ghosts peeking at him in the shower and that was his life. 

Until Chan went pool hopping.

Chan lived in this neighborhood, though Hyunjin always wondered if you could really call it anything like that. All the houses were too far apart for anyone to really interact. He had seen Chan riding his bike past the house, a new young, hot person riding on the back of it every week. 

That night, Hyunjin couldn’t sleep anyway. When he heard drunken laughter and low voices, he sat up and stared out his window. There was his neighbor Chan and a group of friends streaking across the lawn, pulling off their clothes and slipping into the pool. Hyunjin wondered how long it would be until the dogs woke up. 

He folded his arms on the windowsill and rested his chin on them, watching Chan whirl around, laughing and talking just loud enough that Hyunjin could hear him, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. Chan had a nice wide smile, his arms out at either side of him and his nudity on full display. Hyunjin wondered if, with all the lights off and no car in the driveway, Chan was even aware there was someone inside the house. He didn’t wonder for very long, though, before a pale hand was slithering up out of the water and wrapping around Chan’s ankle.

With one firm yank, Jeongin pulled Chan off-balance and the young man toppled into the water face first.

It was chaos. 

Some of Chan’s friends shrieked and climbed out of the pool, tugging on their clothes or forgoing them completely as Jeongin, then Minho, then Jisung and Seungmin grabbed at their ankles and calves. Hyunjin wondered if they could see the ghosts too, or just feel them. Jeongin tried to shove them all off balance, making them topple over each other on the lawn, clamoring into the woods. Meanwhile, Jisung and Minho occupied themselves with crawling along on their stomachs, making loud groans which rumbled in the pit of Hyunjin’s stomach and sent one of Chan’s hot friends into a full panic, curled up on her side and rocking gently, hyperventilating.

By the time Hyunjin shoved himself into some sweatpants and rushed outside, almost everyone was gone. Only Chan remained, Felix and Changbin holding him down against the pavement. As Hyunjin approached, it became clear that Chan was dazed. Even in the dark, Hyunjin could see the older man’s eyelids fluttering, blood pumping out of a small gash at the top of his forehead, where Jeongin must have slammed his forehead against the wall of the pool. 

“Get off of him,” Hyunjin ordered, a rare edge of urgency creeping into his voice, and Felix and Changbin complied, slinking back to the darkened corners of the property where they always liked to hide. Hyunjin approached the man on the pavement.

How long had it been since he’d seen someone his own age?

Chan was attractive, even in the darkness. Hyunjin could understand why he always had someone new on the back of his bike. His hair was wet, a few curls rippling up as it began to dry, and when Hyunjin pressed one hand to the man’s face, it was warm. How long had it been since he’d felt someone’s warm skin? Hyunjin gently swept one thumb across Chan’s forehead, smearing away the blood which was creeping towards his brow. Chan’s skin was warm, and his blood was hot. Hyunjin gently let his thumb rest against the gash, prompting a wince from the man underneath him.

“Can you hear me?” Hyunjin asked. His heart pounded in his ears. He reached his thumb towards Chan’s eyelid, fluttering, and pulled it back. Chan groaned,

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Hyunjin smiled, “I’m making sure you’re alive.” He pulled his hand away from Chan’s face and rested it on his upper arm, resisting the urge to squeeze his muscle. “You hit your head pretty bad, will you come inside so I can get you a bandaid or something?”

Chan blinked and sat up on the heels of his hands, “Who hit me?”

“Ghosts.”

Chan squinted suspiciously but, somehow, agreed. Maybe it was the head injury. He let Hyunjin sling one arm around his torso, helping him up onto his feet and supporting his weight as he took a few heavy steps across the lawn. Jeongin wouldn’t leave them alone. He yanked Hyunjin’s hair and stuck legs out to trip them both. Hyunjin could imagine a world where it was funny: a beautiful man stumbling against him, as they seemed to struggle their way to the house against the wishes of their own feet, but Jeongin’s antics were routine to him now, and the man in his arms was bleeding. He landed a few swift kicks to the ghost’s wrists, though they did nothing to stop him.

Hyunjin helped Chan to the breakfast table, pressing one hand to the oozing wound on his neighbor’s forehead. “Put pressure on this,” he ordered, “I think I have bandaids in here somewhere.”

Chan slumped against the bench and slapped a hand to his forehead. He let out a little laugh, confused and drunk and fascinated all at once, and when Hyunjin came back he smiled.

“Ghosts, huh?” Chan asked. The lights flickered.

“Yeah,” Hyunjin dabbed the wound with a cotton ball, eyes flickering from Chan’s scraped-up-forehead to his smile and back again. He tried a smile on himself, but he found himself thinking too hard about the muscles required to make things look natural. “I hope they didn’t scare your hot friends too bad,” Hyunjin mumbled, rustling through a box of butterfly closures.

“Ooh, my hot friends.” Chan, slumped on the bench, was watching the ceiling light flicker with a steady beat, like blinking, “We didn’t think anyone lived here.” 

Hyunjin applied the little bandage and smoothed his thumb over it, feeling Chan’s hot, damp forehead. “No one does.” He crumpled the wrapper in his hand and straightened up, “Want some water?” 

Chan nodded. He sunk deeper in his bench, if that was even possible, and watched the boy who patched his wounds up walk across the kitchen. There was something about Hyunjin. His flat face, pale skin like he never really saw the sun. Hyunjin’s hair was long and tangled, his sweatpants stained and little moth holes in his t-shirt, but he was cute. Chan wondered why he hadn’t seen him around the area before. When he was drunk like this, Hyunjin seemed like a rare sort of fragile beauty. A butterfly in a jar.

Hyunjin had to battle with the sink. The ghosts were unhappy, he could tell. They didn’t like visitors. “What is he doing here?” Minho hissed.

“Aren’t we good enough for you, Hyunjin?” Jisung grabbed his ass and kissed his neck. Hyunjin hoped Chan couldn’t see them like he could. 

“Leave me alone,” Hyunjin stated plainly, turning on the cold water and starting to fill a glass, only for Jisung to grab his wrist and slam the glass against the edge of the sink. Shards exploded across the countertop. Hyunjin got a new cup, lunging for the tap just as Minho shut it off. “Fuck off,” he muttered.

Chan watched him flutter.

By the time Hyunjin got the glass of water, he was sweaty and frustrated and Chan was eyeing him even harder. “You’re kind of cute,” Chan slurred, taking the glass from Hyunjin’s hand. 

Hyunjin blushed. “Thanks.”

Jeongin kicked the back of his knees so hard he crumpled to the ground.

It was too pathetic to be funny, but it didn’t matter anyway once Chan’s warm hands were wedged in Hyunjin’s armpits, pulling the taller man into his lap and kissing him. Chan’s lips were warm like the rest of him, not like the ghosts’, and his arms had a different kind of strength when they wrapped around Hyunjin’s waist. The lights flickered. The dogs barked. Chan’s hands dragged Hyunjin’s hips against him and all the glasses in the cabinet shattered.

They fought their way upstairs. To an untrained eye like Chan’s, the bruises and scrapes seemed to turn up out of nowhere. He didn’t see the spectral hands at Hyunjin’s and his ankles, the fists beating their shoulders, though he felt them all the same. 

“What are you doing?” Felix whined, but Hyunjin didn’t care. Chan’s hot palm was in his grasp, and they were dragging each other up to bed. Hyunjin needed the touch of a living man.

Chan should have been afraid, but he was too drunk to be, and Hyunjin looked good with bruises blooming up along his jaw. Chan shoved Hyunjin on the bed hard, watching his head twist to one side and a red handprint appear on his cheek. “Are you okay with this?” Chan asked, a little too late, and Hyunjin rolled his eyes,

“You don't have to ask.”

They pulled the covers up over their heads, and Hyunjin climbed on top. His tangled hair fell into his face as he used his body to protect Chan from the ghosts. He knew they wouldn’t hurt him as bad as they’d hurt his neighbor. He was family.

“You’re so warm,” Hyunjin murmured, sliding his palm up Chan’s sweaty, muscled chest. Chan’s hands covered his own, rough and hot and strong, and Chan let out a heavy breath under the covers. Hyunjin hadn’t kissed someone in so long. Hyunjin hadn’t been grabbed so long. Chan stretched him out, and Hyunjin didn’t even mind the burn. He breathed into his neighbor’s neck, the man’s stubble scratching the tip of his nose.

Changbin sat in an old chair across the bedroom, Felix in his lap, Seungmin at his side. The three ghosts watched the covers twist and heave. 

Hyunjin was so wrapped up in Chan’s strong grasp, he didn’t even notice the ghosts weren’t touching them anymore. For the first time in a long time, his body tensed and relaxed predictably. His heart pounded and lungs sighed as Chan dug into a bruise on his neck. Hyunjin was a tangled mess, but he was alive in Chan’s arms. He was alive

He should have known this sort of thing would only last so long.

“You shouldn’t have left him in here,” Changbin commented, his voice its usual deadpan. Hyunjin and Chan had finished fucking, and Hyunjin lay crumpled up in the sheets. Chan’s cum leaked out between his tangled legs, the other man soft against his back. Hyunjin pretended he was asleep.

“You know only family stays here,” Seungmin’s fingers were like cold needles in Hyunjin’s hair, his voice a shiver down the spine. 

“Fucking idiot.”

Hyunjin felt the bed shifting around him, and he turned to curl his body around Chan protectively. Chan was snoring gently, his breath foul in Hyunjin’s eyes and nose, and Hyunjin tried to focus on its alcoholic scent. He tried to keep his eyes closed and wish the ghosts away, like he used to, but they weren’t having it tonight.

Jisung’s cold fingers peeled Hyunjin’s eyelids back. Changbin’s soft arms restrained him, and Jeongin’s icy hands wrapped around his neighbor’s neck.

Chan’s eyes snapped open, but there was nothing to be done. Hyunjin squirmed feebly, watching Chan’s mouth drop open, watching Chan’s strong hands claw at Jeongin’s hands. Jeongin was small, but he wasn’t alone. Minho was there too, tugging Chan’s curling hair away from his forehead. Chan didn’t have the breath to scream by the time Minho’s thumbs dug into his eyes. They popped like red grapes. Hyunjin gagged.

He tried to scream something like “STOP!” or “NO!” but Jisung clamped a hand over his mouth before he could get the sound out.

“You should have known not to bring strangers into our home,” Seungmin coldly recited.

Hyunjin thrashed and groaned as Jeongin dug his fingers into Chan’s throat. He closed his eyes against the splatter of Minho’s fist pounding Chan’s empty eye sockets. Felix, usually so sweet, grabbed a dim lamp off the bedside and raised it above his head. “Sorry Hyunjin,” Felix murmured, before smashing the light down on Chan’s face.

The lightbulb shattered, and everything went black.

Hyunjin didn’t let himself look at his neighbors deflating body. Instead, he forced his way out of bed. He clawed at cold flesh, jamming himself into whatever clothes he could grab, and tumbled his way downstairs.

“Where are you going?”

“Stop it, Hyunjin.”

“Don't you want to stay with us?”

“You have nowhere else to go, anyway.”

Hyunjin clipped the dog’s leashes to his waist, slammed the door behind him, and he walked.

He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew that he was moving. With the headlights of passing cars flashing alongside him, Hyunjin walked until his feet hurt, and the ghosts didn’t follow him out here. The dogs panted at either side of him, and maybe he thought about them pulling him into oncoming traffic. Maybe he thought about Chan’s rough hands at his waist. It didn’t matter anyway. Hyunjin walked and he walked until his legs crumpled beneath him and his body sunk to the pavement.

With his back against the asphalt, Hyunjin wondered how long it would be after his death before the dogs began eating his body. Their leashes jangled where they were clipped to his waist. 

Hyunjin grew cold as the night grew cold, and he watched the stars, and imagined the tires’ tread on a passing 16-wheel truck.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hi on my twitter or cc, if you like!
> 
> Twitter: [BigBoyEels](https://twitter.com/BigBoyEels)   
> CuriousCat: [BigBoyEels](https://curiouscat.qa/BigBoyEels)


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